Bulking up for a hard gainer.

[PAWs 21]

Hi all. I'm looking for advice on gaining weight. I'm 6'3" and 165 pounds. I'm in high school currently and I have soccer 5 days a week after school but I still make it to the gym Mon-Wed-Fri before school and I usually go with a few friends to the free crossfit workout on Sat. I eat everything I can but can't put any weight on. I've been getting stronger but my weight isn't changing. I would like to be able to put on 20 pounds before I go off to ROTC next August. All help is greatly appreciated.

[Smash]

A little more info would be helpful.

When you say you "eat everything you can". What exactly does that include? Gaining good weight isn't about eating everything it's about eating enough of the right things.

Every person I talk to that tells me they can't gain weight has been doing something wrong.

What's the best piece of equipment to get bigger and stronger? A fork.

[Dhall92]

Subbed. I'm 6'1 150lbs.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

[Smash]

Subbed. I'm 6'1 150lbs.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

A little more info and someone may be able to provide you something more specific for you.

Age, activity level, current nutrition intake. Etc.

[PAWs 21]

I usually have eggs with cheese in the morning and or oatmeal. I will eat a Cliff protein bar or some peanut butter or a PB&J for a snack around 9:30. For lunch ill have chicken breast with fruit and a hard boiled egg and carrots or broccoli. Then I don't typically eat dinner until 6 or so. Dinner is inconsistent as far is what I eat as I live with my family. I eat pretty healthy. When I say "eat everything I can" I don't mean cake ha. Keep the advice coming.

[Ericstac]

As Chris is saying its all in the diet. Most of the time the "I eat everything I can" responses are usually found when actually written out to not be enough overall calories in a given day to equate to growth. It is skip breakfast, have two hot pockets for lunch and McDonald's for dinner. That doesn't work.

To start I would put you on roughly 3500 daily calories.

Protein - 200g from lean proteins like chicken and fish with a good steak once or twice a week.
Carbs - 400g from mainly from rice, oats, potatoes, and then fruits and veggies.
Fats - 130ish grams from coconut oil, nuts, olive oil, avacado.

If you don't grow, which would be really odd, I would raise your carb intake.

[PAWs 21]

I forgot I bring a sandwich sized bag of mixed nuts (no peanuts) with me too. I might need more carbs. What am I looking at for 400g carbs? 200g protein? The protein bars only have 20g and I want to intake most of this from actual food.

[Ironman8]

As Chris is saying its all in the diet. Most of the time the "I eat everything I can" responses are usually found when actually written out to not be enough overall calories in a given day to equate to growth. It is skip breakfast, have two hot pockets for lunch and McDonald's for dinner. That doesn't work.

To start I would put you on roughly 3500 daily calories.

Protein - 200g from lean proteins like chicken and fish with a good steak once or twice a week.
Carbs - 400g from mainly from rice, oats, potatoes, and then fruits and veggies.
Fats - 130ish grams from coconut oil, nuts, olive oil, avacado.

If you don't grow, which would be really odd, I would raise your carb intake.

You realize that the diet breakdown you gave equates to 4,770 calories right?

I'm 5'8 and typically weigh in the 180's so I'm far from a hardgainer, but when I was in college and playing baseball I wanted to see how my performance level was impacted by gaining 10 pounds of muscle on my frame. I did this in one month and was eating about 4000-4500 calories per day. Clean eating. I wasn't stuffing my face with cake and ice cream to get me to my caloric goals Also, heavy compound lifts were about all I did...really heavy. At one point I squated 500, which I will admit to being stupid, and glad I didn't do that very often. I ended up gaining the 10 pounds which brought me up to 191 @ 9% bodyfat.

How much you need to eat in order to gain will be different than me, but here is a general guidline that I go by for bulking up:

1-2 grams Protein per pound of bodyweight
1.75-2.5 grams Carbs per pound of bodyweight
.5-.75 grams Fats per pound of bodyweight

Of course, Will may come along and tell you that this is all wrong but this is what I used and saw results.

[PAWs 21]

Thanks Ironman I can't squat 500 haha but I compound lift when I get the chance but I spend 1.5-2 hours everyday running around for soccer.

[Ironman8]

I forgot I bring a sandwich sized bag of mixed nuts (no peanuts) with me too. I might need more carbs. What am I looking at for 400g carbs? 200g protein? The protein bars only have 20g and I want to intake most of this from actual food.

You're on the right track. Whole/natural proteins (all kinds of meat and some dairy) should be at least 2/3 of your diet...the rest can come from supps.

Lots of pasta, oatmeal, fruits, vegetables, ect. for the carbs

Fats should come naturally from things like fish, avocados, egg yolks (DON'T throw out the egg yolk, especially when bulking). If you're eating this much, the fat calories will be fairly easy to hit. But if you're eating fatty/fried/fast foods, you'll overshoot your fat calories in a hurry!